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A30916 A letter to a lady furnishing her with Scripture testimonies against the principal points and doctrines of popery Barecroft, Charles. 1688 (1688) Wing B757; ESTC R20623 57,234 84

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ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast 2 Tim. 1. 9. Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us c. And many more you will meet with in reading but by these few you may judge how available our works even the very best we can do are to salvation Before I leave this Point I presume it will not be impertinent if I add something in this Place touching Justification by Faith In which for brevity sake I shall do little more than set down the most pertinent Texts of Scripture and leave the rest to your Ingenuity And in the first place Gen. 15. 6. Abraham believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness Habak 2. 4. Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his Faith. Joh. 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name And Chap. 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life When our Saviour went to raise the Ruler of the Synagogue's Daughter he bid him only believe Mark 5. 36. Acts 10. 23. To him give all the Prophets witness That through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins And Chap. 16. 31. When the Keeper of the Prison wherein Paul and Silas were asked them What he should do to be saved their Answer was Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house Rom. 3. 23. For we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Where is boasting then it is excluded By what law of works Nay but by the law of Faith therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law If you consider this Quotation throughly you will find it as compleat to the purpose as can be desired However I 'll present you with a few more Rom. 4. 1. What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found no for if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God for what say the Scriptures Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness And to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Where by the way the Word ungodly in this Text must not be taken to mean Impenitent Sinners for they as such can have no Right to Justification but as no man is Upright in the Sight of God he is said in the Best of Men to justifie ungodly freely by his grace in the foregoing Chapter Verse 23 24. So that this makes doubly for my Purpose shewing first That Justification comes by Faith and also That those that are Justified being Sinners before God cannot with Reason boast of the Merit of Works Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And Chap. 10. 8. The word is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Gal. 2. 16. 21. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead in vain And Chap. 3. 11. And the Scripture foreseeing that God would Justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee shall all nations be blessed But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by faith For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but faith which worketh by love Let that Text. Eph. 2. 8. above cited summ up all For by grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Neither have I been at all this Pains from a solifidian Principle to endeavour to seclude Good Works from being the Fruits of a lively Faith For so I should frustrate the Grace of God. And I presume Madam you know my Opinion better than to think so my Intent was only to shew How Erronious it is to suppose Merit from Works especially according to the Doctrin of the Church of Rome That Men may Merit for themselves and others To conclude this Point give me leave to present to your Meditation the Heinousness of Original Sin only and then I 'll leave you to Judge if for all that and the many Actual Sins we daily commit God will be gracious to us and receive us unto his Glory how little Reason we have to boast of that Nothing we have done to Merit his Favour Gen. 6. 5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them I think no man can deny Original Sin to be the Cause of all this and then how Heinous a thing that is which is the Cause of so much Displeasure in God I submit to any person to Judge You will read to the same Purpose Verse 11 12 13. Job 14. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one For Psal 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Prov. 20. 9. Who then can say
exercis'd in Filthy Lusts as useless as a Sword is while it remains in the Sheath And this is the sence that the best Expositors put upon the place Beza especially is very copious and fully discusses the point proving that this Prison can in no wise be taken for Purgatory But the Reverend Dr. Hammond has most ingenuously and accurately express'd the Apostles meaning and therefore with his words I shall conclude Christ says he is an Example of suffering for well-doing in his Dying for Sins not his own but ours he being righteous died for us who were unrighteous that when we were Aliens and Enemies to God he might reconcile us to him and give us Authority to approach him wherein yet for our example and comfort it must be observ'd that tho' as a Man cloath'd in our Flesh he was put to Death and that innocently to purchase Redemption for us yet by the power of God in him he was most gloriously rais'd from the Dead and shall consequently by raising and rescuing us out of the present Sufferings and destroying all obdurate Sinners shew forth wonderful Evidences of Power and Life The very same in effect that of old he did at the time in which beyond all others he shew'd himself in Power and Majesty against his Enemies but withal in great Mercy and Deliverance to his Obedient Servants that adher'd to him I mean in the Days of the Old World when by Noah that Preacher of Righteousness he gave those treatable warnings to those that made no use of the Light of Nature in their Hearts to the Spirits or Souls of those that were then alive before the Flood which God had given them with impressions of Good and Evil but through their customs of Sin were as a Sword put up in a Sheath laid up in their Bodies unprofitably So then upon the whole matter whether the sence of the Apostle be referr'd to our Saviours Preaching by Noah to them of the Old World or by his Apostles to the Gentiles of the New is not much to the purpose this is the plain resolution of the present Quere That the word Prison here made use of is only a Metaphorical Epithet given to the Body in reference to the Soul a Comparison made of the Soul confin'd in the Body of a sinful Man with a Man lock'd up in a Prison And thus when our Saviour by his Ministers Preaches the Gospel especially to Unbelievers or Wicked Men he may be said to Preach to Spirits in Prison From what has been said then I think Purgatory can't be asserted from the words of St. Peter Whence we come to consider those of St. Paul If any Man's Work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by Fire The Apostle Verse 10 says According to the Grace of God which was given to me as a wise Master-Builder I have laid the Foundation and another buildeth thereon And Verse 12. he speaks of Two sorts of Men that build on this Foundation First those that build thereon Gold Silver and Precious-Stones and Secondly those that build thereon Wood Hay and Stubble Now says he Verse 13 Every Man's Work shall be made manifest For the Day shall declare it because it shall be reveal'd by Fire and the Fire shall try every Man's Work of what sort it is And as he goes on If any Man's Work shall abide which he hath built thereon he shall receive a Reward But if any Man's Work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss c. Which may be thus explain'd There were among the Corinthians when the Apostle writ this Epistle to 'em two sorts of Preachers some who endeavour'd nothing more than to Preach the pure simplicity of the Gospel and to feed the Flock of Christ with sound and wholsome Doctrine And others who pretended to greater parts and knowledge than other Men and these with superfluous flourishes and empty glosses endeavour'd to win the Hearts of their Hearers by their worldly wisdom as the Apostle calls it As the other studied for the preservation of a Good Conscience in the faithful discharge of their Duty so these made it their chief care to become the Peoples Favourites by being as complaisant and obliging as they cou'd and by Indulging 'em in some petty matters as they call'd 'em that the Gospel might not seem too heavy a burden to ' em They wou'd tell the People of Works of Supererogation some things they might do more than they were commanded to do and so brought in worshipping of Angels under a pretence of voluntary Humility intruding into those things which they had not seen being vainly puffed up with their fleshly minds as the Apostle testifies Col. 2. 18. And by such little tricks as these they gain'd more and more upon the giddy Affections of the multitude 'till at last they broke out into that Division which call'd for this Epistle Things being at this pass the Apostle thought it high time to think of a way if possible to put a stop to those Enormities which were so fast breaking into the Church And to this end he first mildly reproves the Corinthians for their overmuch curiosity and affection of Speculation rather than wholsome Doctrine And then heproceeds to shew 'em the vanity of such Speculative Preachers by telling 'em that he had laid the Foundation and that no Man cou'd lay another than what was laid already which was Jesus Christ Now says he If any Man builds upon this Foundation Gold Silver Precious-Stones Wood Hay or Stubble Every Man's Work shall be made manifest For the Day shall declare it because it shall be reveal'd by Fire and the Fire shall try every Man's Work of what sort it is And if any Man's Work shall abide which he hath built upon that Foundation which he had laid he shall receive a Reward That is He that shall approve himself a sincere Preacher of the Gospel that he has fed the Flock of Christ with sound and profitable Doctrine he shall in the Day of Trial have this to comfort him against all Temporal Calamities That he has Acted as a faithful Pastor ought to do and therefore though Tribulations beset him on all sides yet he is certain he whom he has serv'd is faithful and will undoubtedly perform his promise to his faithful Servants so that in the midst of the greatest Afflictions he 's sure to become more than a Conqueror and as such shall not miss of a most glorious Reward But If any Man's Work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss That is He shall in the Day of Trial be convinc'd of the invalidity and unprofitableness of his Preaching which will cause in him the pains of a guilty Conscience which commonly attend on those that have been unprofitable in their Stations and the loss of his former credit will cause him shame and a detestation of those vain and empty Opinions which before he so earnestly defended and all these